Tuesday, November 29, 2011

With settlement looming, one of my lists has involved refurnishing the house on an extremely tight budget **. The first thing we did was investigate and order the most energy efficient appliances we could afford within our budget (one of which was a 5 star fridge). After that was out of the way, I've moved onto furniture with the $$$ that remained.

My extreme reaction to mold initially ruled out secondhand furniture. Since most opshops smell like mold or mildew they send me off into an immediate asthma attack and can also induce numbness in my left arm. But at the same time, I didnt want to buy Chinese made mdf rubbish because of a) it's environmental impact and b) most of the stuff smells or offgasses toxic nasties.

Instead I started to investigate secondhand shops. I've managed to find a few different ones who could tell me whether products smelled, had water damage or any mildew / mold apparent. Their shops are also smell free to me, so no reaction. And voila our secondhand mission began. Since the house was built in the late 1930's and has beautiful art deco features, I've been focusing on art deco furniture or furniture that is vintage from the 1940's/1950's that has history or a story. And I have to say I've had a ball :-)

Last weekend I picked up the above beautiful antique bedside tables - they are from the Grand Hyatt during the 1930's.

I've also collected some stepped and plain bookcases as well as secondhand chairs. The secondhand chairs need painting to match our new house better (I like purple but not on a chair).

This Depression Glass bowl was thrown in as a freebie, and who can forget our gorgeous vintage blackboard for Little B. I just couldnt resist even if its a want not a need :-)

It's been quite fun searching for all this furniture and been extremely budget friendly. The better bargain I can get the more $$$ I have to spend on other aspects of either the renovation or furnishings for the house.

Thursday, November 24, 2011

"As much as you transform the land by farming, farming transforms you", Kristin Kimball

The Dirty Life is a memoir written by Kristin Kimball and is the story of how she fell in love with a farmer and began a different way of life as together they transformed a derelict farm in a remote town in the US. I loved this book and count it as one of my best birthday presents. It's easy to read, refreshingly honest about the hard graft of farming but at the same time passionate about the process. Kristin's enthusiasm and honesty roll over you like honey.

She also doesnt beat around the bush: "tranquil and farming are two things farming is not". Farming sounds bone achingly tiring. But she also explains its promise of connectedness with the land, the celebration of effort and her gratefulness that she found it.

One of the first things I did after reading this book was to go out and plant more in our vegie garden. More eggplants, more capsicum, peas, lettuces, corn.....quite simply more. This book made me feel passionate about my garden.

Then I re-looked at a local CSA and it's organic boxes of fruit and veg. It buys the majority of its food from local sources. Combined with our local biodynamic grocer (which is run by a local farmer, who sources local if he can), I feel like I'm making a concerted effort to support local farmers and industry. And I guess like Food Inc, that's one of the key things that comes away from this book. How important it is to try and source your food locally and to support local industry.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

* we relaxed, hung out, read books, made sand castles, checked out the sights and did lots of walking. We even managed to investigate a gorgeous kitchen garden and milk a cow at a historic working farm

* the Penguin Parade was a highlight. We did the Penguins Plus which meant the penguins literally almost passed by our feet (so worth the extra $40)

* we investigated lots of different beaches, and it was not unheard for us to go down to the beach 2 or 3 times each day. After dinner was our favourite time.

* Little B's shell collection expanded exponentially, especially after visiting the shelly beach at Rhyll. He's also now the proud owner of an old crab shell and claw

* sign of a great holiday...last year he assured me he was moving to Goolwa. This year Little B is moving to Phillip Island to live :-) He's sure they must have a great kindy there LOL

Sunday, November 20, 2011

"Who would like to join me in an energy challenge? We will only begin with grid Electricity as most folks have it connected. Subsequent posts will be about the following;

how to read your meter, the quick basics about electricity terminology, how to manage the data you are collecting, documenting your energy baseline for the first week, and then launch into an energy efficiency programme. I have an MS Excel spreadsheet that I designed that will help out. For those who don't have Excel, Open Office or Google docs will suffice. I will guide you all the same.

The posts for the challenge will be over four weeks and at the end of each of the four weeks we will post the total percentage of electricity reduction we each have made. It should be good fun, and I hope that we can all achieve a big reduction in our consumption".

I am really looking forward to this challenge for a number of reasons. We have tracked our electricity usage in the past - namely at our first house before and after we got solar, and then initially at our moldy house. Since we are currently based at Granny B's and she has just had her solar installed, we are keen to reduce her usage as much as possible. She is preparing for her "retirement" in the future and would like to be as resourceful and frugal as possible as who knows what the future may bring.

We also settle on our new house in a few weeks, and begin a renovation that will include things like insulation and rewiring to reduce electricity usage to name a few things. A new house always brings surprises / challenges with usage until you get a hold on all the extraneous variables like drafts, insulation etc, so this challenge couldnt happen at a better time.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Back from five glorious days at Phillip Island, this Saturday I'm grateful for:

* holidays - it was only five days but it may as well of been twenty. I feel invigorated, refreshed and ready to tackle the oncoming reno that begins in two weeks

* weather - the forecast was for cool wet weather but instead we had five days of sunshine and warmth. Think tshirts and shorts weather (drawback when you only took one tshirt *giggle*)

* audiobooks - no tv, no phones, no internet - sheer bliss. We took along some audiobooks (as well as real books) for Little B to listen to during the drive and for some down time. Our current favourites are Sparkle Stories - this storytelling family is really lovely. We havent found a story yet that Little B doesnt like and they impart some great growing up wisdom.

Monday, November 14, 2011

The beach is calling us (again) so we are off on holidays to Phillip Island. Here's to lots of sand, frolics and fun. Looks like the weather might be against us but Little B is super excited and looking forward to the beach, penguins and seals in all their glory!!

Sunday, November 13, 2011

The weather has been so changeable of late - cold, warm, rainy, windy, sunny - you name it, we've had it. But spring has been quite kind to our garden.

I'm so glad I planted our tomatoes early because they are growing beautifully. Those few extra weeks when the weather was warm and mild have really made a difference.

This is my best bunch of potatoes yet. I'm absolutely sold on using the growing bags and will get a few more next year. During the worst weeks of rain and a few storms, we've been able to move them under cover on our back deck to stop them getting waterlogged.

I'm still having an ongoing battle with snails and slugs. I lost all my lebanese cucumber seedlings, my first batch of pumpkin & sunflower seedlings and nearly all my carrots to snails and slugs. I gave up on the carrots in the end (we have two that survived LOL).

But my 2nd batch of pumpkin seedlings are doing well along with the zucchini. I dont think Granny B's yard has enough sun for these but we'll see. We are going to plant in conjunction with each other next year once we have the new house, and will plant what works best at the appropriate house.

And we are trying watermelon this year for Little B (seeds courtesy of Bec at Eat at Dixibelle's - thanks Bec :-) They seem to be growing really well. We've put them in half wine barrels and so far the snails have left them alone. Also means we can take advantage of the seriously sunny spots in the garden which are too small for vegie beds.

Our first pear is growing. It's only been 5 years in the making but we nursed this tree through some seriously hot droughty summers, so are very proud :-) We finally ripped out our dwarf peach tree - it's had leaf curl no matter what we did over the last few years and it was starting to affect our other dwarf trees. Now it's gone the nectarine especially seems to be recovering all on its own.

And last but not least, my beans. This seemed to be the only plant that would grow for me when we first started vegie gardening years ago and they get better and better each year. I love my beans xx

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I really love Bec's recent post on "No More Stuff Until Christmas". Over the last few years we've really tried to focus on being no more stuff kind of people. And on a side note, after having to get rid of all our belongings, it's amazing how unimportant stuff really becomes.

But stuff has risen it's ugly head again recently in of all places with Little B's physio. Physio is hard at the best of times and getting a nearly 5 year old to do it every day is shall we say a challenge. The answer I'm told is to bribe him with toys. This is heartily encouraged by both therapists and in the words of one "buy him whatever it takes to get him to do it". Now with both of them encouraging this, it would mean that I would be buying Little B 2 toys a week or 8 toys a month. Seriously, what child needs 8 new toys a month? And even if I was buying secondhand - that's still 8 new toys a month!?!?!

Needless to say I have found this attitude grating rather than encouraging and it has more than ruffled my feathers (not helped by a crankypants child who doesnt want to do physio everyday). So our answer has been to create our own reward charts. Working with Little B we have created two rewards charts - one for outdoor rewards and one for cooking rewards. Each week, he gets to pick something from one of these lists as his reward. We then alternate the charts so he picks outdoors one week and cooking the other. He chose the things on the list so that they motivate him to get through his daily exercises.

As you can see from the list, they arent earth shattering but they are things he really likes to do with the undivided attention of either or both parents in tow. He loves to cook and while this list isnt complete yet, we are already looking forward to making cattle cookies this weekend.

I'd hate to think where we would have put Little B's 36 new toys if we'd gone down that path - to be honest the mind boggles.

Monday, November 7, 2011

We had a great time away. One of the highlights was seeing Lake Eildon full to the brim. People could touch the bridge as they went under it on boats :-0 I remember not that long ago when it was dry dry dry.

I also finally got to see a community project that Mr B worked on for a number of months earlier this year. He designed and installed the solar tracker and static solar as part of a Eco Living Sustainable Communities Project by the Rural City of Wangaratta. I'd seen many photos but it was really impressive up close - you can see from the pic the sheer size of it compared to Mr B. The tracker currently generates enough electricity to power 3 houses.

And my SIL's 40th was great fun. A beautiful balmy warm night, lots of fun people and my BIL has built a wood fired cobb oven by hand. And provided the most delicious home made wood fired pizzas on the night. Needless to say Mr B was instructed to take a very close look as I soooo want one of those at our new house :-)

And last but not least we noticed quite a few houses in the area from the art deco era. Which allowed us to take pictures and get ideas for the outside of the new house. Especially this roof which has the original terracotta tiles in situ. We're not that lucky but now have a colour that we can at least try and match to.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

It's been a long and rainy week but the sun waits for no man :-) So this Saturday I'm grateful for...

* long drives - me, my man, some great tunes and a long drive. We are off cross country to my SIL's 40th birthday party today.

* bravery - I say this tongue in cheek (kind of) but this is the furthest distance I will have been away from Little B since he was born (3 hours). He cant wait for a weekend of the sole undivided attention of Granny B and me?? I have to remember what I'm like without an appendage for 2 whole days LOL

* doctors who listen - we needed to provide a strange and abstract letter to Little B's preschool next year about his allergies (in order for them to change a few things). Problem?? It takes 6 months to see his allergist. Solution?? A divine allergy friendly GP who listened to our story, read his food diaries and provided said letter...hooray!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

After what seems like days and days of rain, Little B and I have become a tad stir crazy :-) So we whipped out a Mister Maker book that Little B got for his last birthday. We are going on holidays soon which involves a 2 hour drive to the seaside, so what better than a making a toy for the car.

We settled on the sticky picture box, found an old shoe box and some felt remnants from sewing. Then went to work cutting out shapes. Little B decided a blue background was best as it could be either the sea or space (two current faves).

And in a short time it was done. I had great fun cutting out pieces that could be used for either theme. Seaweed upside down becomes rocket fuel. And our mermaids face becomes the moon. And as you can see above Little B decided to turn a fish sideways and give it some hair (which was a clam).

It was a cute quick project and has already proved to be an interesting diversion in the car. The box sits well on his lap and contains all the pieces. I'll definitely be giving some more projects out of this book a go, especially since we seem to have fallen back into winter somehow!?!?